Beyond this, the plan of action was either unformed or undiscovered; someslight reliance seems to have been placed on English aid,--more onassistance from St. Domingo. At any rate, all the ships in the harborwere to be seized; and in these, if the worst came to the worst, thosemost deeply inculpated could set sail, bearing with them, perhaps, thespoils of shops and of banks. It seems to be admitted by the officialnarrative, that they might have been able, at that season of the year,and with the aid of the fortifications on the Neck and around the harbor,to retain possession of the city for some time.

So unsuspicious were the authorities, so unprepared the citizens, so opento attack lay the city, that nothing seemed necessary to the success ofthe insurgents except organization and arms. Indeed, the plan oforganization easily covered a supply of arms. By their own contributionsthey had secured enough to strike the first blow,--a few hundred pikesand daggers, together with swords and guns for the leaders. But they hadcarefully marked every place in the city where weapons were to beobtained. On King-street Road, beyond the municipal limits, in a commonwooden shop, were left unguarded the arms of the Neck company of militia,to the number of several hundred stand; and these were to be secured byBacchus Hammett, whose master kept the establishment. In Mr. Duquercron'sshop there were deposited for sale as many more weapons; and they hadnoted Mr. Schirer's shop in Queen Street, and other gunsmiths'establishments. Finally, the State arsenal in Meeting Street, a buildingwith no defences except ordinary wooden doors, was to be seized early inthe outbreak. Provided, therefore, that the first moves provedsuccessful, all the rest appeared sure.

Very little seems to have been said among the conspirators in regard toany plans of riot or debauchery, subsequent to the capture of the city.Either their imaginations did not dwell on them, or the witnesses did notdare to give testimony, or the authorities to print it. Death was to bedealt out, comprehensive and terrible; but nothing more is mentioned. Oneprisoner, Rolla, is reported in the evidence to have dropped hints inregard to the destiny of the women; and there was a rumor in thenewspapers of the time, that he or some other of Gov. Bennett's slaveswas to have taken the governor's daughter, a young girl of sixteen, forhis wife, in the event of success; but this is all. On the other hand,Denmark Vesey was known to be for a war of immediate and totalextermination; and when some of the company opposed killing "theministers and the women and children," Vesey read from the Scripturesthat all should be cut off, and said that "it was for their safety not toleave one white skin alive, for this was the plan they pursued at St.Domingo." And all this was not a mere dream of one lonely enthusiast, buta measure which had been maturing for four full years among severalconfederates, and had been under discussion for five months amongmultitudes of initiated "candidates."

As usual with slave-insurrections, the best men and those most trustedwere deepest in the plot. Rolla was the only prominent conspirator whowas not an active church-member. "Most of the ringleaders," says aCharleston letter-writer of that day, "were the rulers or class-leadersin what is called the African Society, and were considered faithful,honest fellows. Indeed, many of the owners could not be convinced, tillthe fellows confessed themselves, that they were concerned, and that thefirst object of all was to kill their masters." And the first officialreport declares that it would not be difficult to assign a motive for theinsurrectionists, "if it had not been distinctly proved, that, withscarcely an exception, they had no individual hardship to complain of,and were among the most humanely treated negroes in the city. Thefacilities for combining and confederating in such a scheme were amplyafforded by the extreme indulgence and kindness which characterize thedomestic treatment of our slaves. Many slave-owners among us, notsatisfied with ministering to the wants of their domestics by all thecomforts of abundant food and excellent clothing, with a misguidedbenevolence have not only permitted their instruction, but lent to suchefforts their approbation and applause."

"I sympathize most sincerely," says the anonymous author of a pamphlet ofthe period, "with the very respectable and pious clergyman whose heartmust still bleed at the recollection that his confidential class-leader,but a week or two before his just conviction, had received the communionof the Lord's Supper from his hand. This wretch had been brought up inhis pastor's family, and was treated with the same Christian attention aswas shown to their own children." "To us who are accustomed to the baseand proverbial ingratitude of these people, this ill return of kindnessand confidence is not surprising; but they who are ignorant of their realcharacter will read and wonder."

One demonstration of this "Christian attention" had lately been theclosing of the African Church,--of which, as has been stated, most of theleading revolutionists were members,--on the ground that it tended tospread the dangerous infection of the alphabet. On Jan. 15, 1821, thecity marshal, John J. Lafar, had notified "ministers of the gospel andothers who keep night--and Sunday-schools for slaves, that the educationof such persons is forbidden by law, and that the city government feelimperiously bound to enforce the penalty." So that there were somespecial as well as general grounds for disaffection among theseungrateful favorites of fortune, the slaves. Then there were fancieddangers. An absurd report had somehow arisen,--since you cannot keep menignorant without making them unreasonable also,--that on the ensuingFourth of July the whites were to create a false alarm, and that everyblack man coming out was to be killed, "in order to thin them;" thisbeing done to prevent their joining an imaginary army supposed to be onits way from Hayti. Others were led to suppose that Congress had endedthe Missouri Compromise discussion by making them all free, and that thelaw would protect their liberty if they could only secure it. Others,again, were threatened with the vengeance of the conspirators, unlessthey also joined; on the night of attack, it was said, the initiatedwould have a countersign, and all who did not know it would share thefate of the whites. Add to this the reading of Congressional speeches,and of the copious magazine of revolution to be found in the Bible,--andit was no wonder, if they for the first time were roused, under theenergetic leadership of Vesey, to a full consciousness of their owncondition.

"Not only were the leaders of good character, and very much indulged bytheir owners; but this was very generally the case with all who wereconvicted,--many of them possessing the highest confidence of theirowners, and not one of bad character." In one case it was proved thatVesey had forbidden his followers to trust a certain man, because he hadonce been seen intoxicated. In another case it was shown that a slavenamed George had made every effort to obtain their confidence, but wasconstantly excluded from their meetings as a talkative fellow who couldnot be trusted,--a policy which his levity of manner, when examined incourt, fully justified. They took no women into counsel,--not from anydistrust apparently, but in order that their children might not be leftuncared-for in case of defeat and destruction. House-servants were rarelytrusted, or only when they had been carefully sounded by the chiefleaders. Peter Poyas, in commissioning an agent to enlist men, gave himexcellent cautions: "Don't mention it to those waiting-men who receivepresents of old coats, etc., from their masters, or they'll betray us; Iwill speak to them." When he did speak, if he did not convince them, heat least frightened them. But the chief reliance was on those slaves whowere hired out, and therefore more uncontrolled,--and also upon thecountry negroes.

The same far-sighted policy directed the conspirators to disarm suspicionby peculiarly obedient and orderly conduct. And it shows the precautionwith which the thing was carried on, that, although Peter Poyas wasproved to have had a list of some six hundred persons, yet not one of hisparticular company was ever brought to trial. As each leader kept tohimself the names of his proselytes, and as Monday Gell was the only oneof these leaders who turned traitor, any opinion as to the numbersactually engaged must be altogether conjectural. One witness said ninethousand; another, six thousand six hundred. These statements wereprobably extravagant, though not more so than Gov. Bennett's assertion,on the other side, that "all who were actually concerned had been broughtto justice,"--unless by this phrase he designates only the ringleaders.The avowed aim of the governor's letter, indeed, is to smooth the thingover, for the credit and safety of the city; and its evasive tonecontrasts strongly with the more frank and thorough statements of thejudges, made after the thing could no longer be hushed up. These highauthorities explicitly acknowledge that they had failed to detect morethan a small minority of those concerned in the project, and seem toadmit, that, if it had once been brought to a head, the slaves generallywould have joined in.

"We cannot venture to say," says the intendant's pamphlet, "to how manythe knowledge of the intended effort was communicated, who withoutsignifying their assent, or attending any of the meetings, were yetprepared to profit by events. That there are many who would not havepermitted the enterprise to have failed at a critical moment, for thewant of their co-operation, we have the best reason for believing." Sobelieved the community at large; and the panic was in proportion, whenthe whole danger was finally made public. "The scenes I witnessed," saysone who has since narrated the circumstances, "and the declaration of theimpending danger that met us at all times and on all occasions, forcedthe conviction that never were an entire people more thoroughly alarmedthan were the people of Charleston at that time.... During theexcitement, and the trial of the supposed conspirators, rumor proclaimedall, and doubtless more than all, the horrors of the plot. The city wasto be fired in every quarter; the arsenal in the immediate vicinity wasto be broken open, and the arms distributed to the insurgents, and auniversal massacre of the white inhabitants to take place. Nor did thereseem to be any doubt in the mind of the people, that such would actuallyhave been the result had not the plot fortunately been detected beforethe time appointed for the outbreak. It was believed, as a matter ofcourse, that every black in the city would join in the insurrection, andthat if the original design had been attempted, and the city taken bysurprise, the negroes would have achieved a complete and easy victory.Nor does it seem at all impossible that such might have been, or yet maybe, the case, if any well-arranged and resolute rising should takeplace."

Indeed, this universal admission, that all the slaves were ready to takepart in any desperate enterprise, was one of the most startling aspectsof the affair. The authorities say that the two principal State'sevidence declared that "they never spoke to any person of color on thesubject, or knew of any one who had been spoken to by the other leaders,who had withheld his assent." And the conspirators seem to have beenperfectly satisfied that all the remaining slaves would enter their ranksupon the slightest success. "Let us assemble a sufficient number tocommence the work with spirit, and we'll not want men; they'll fall inbehind us fast enough." And as an illustration of this readiness, theofficial report mentions a slave who had belonged to one master forsixteen years, sustaining a high character for fidelity and affection,who had twice travelled with him through the Northern States, resistingevery solicitation to escape, and who yet was very deeply concerned inthe insurrection, though knowing it to involve the probable destructionof the whole family with whom he lived.

One singular circumstance followed the first rumors of the plot. Severalwhite men, said to be of low and unprincipled character, at once began tomake interest with the supposed leaders among the slaves, either fromgenuine sympathy, or with the intention of betraying them for money, orby profiting by the insurrection, should it succeed. Four of these werebrought to trial; but the official report expresses the opinion that manymore might have been discovered but for the inadmissibility of slavetestimony against whites. Indeed, the evidence against even these fourwas insufficient for a capital conviction, although one was overheard,through stratagem, by the intendant himself, and arrested on the spot.This man was a Scotchman, another a Spaniard, a third a German, and thefourth a Carolinian. The last had for thirty years kept a shop in theneighborhood of Charleston; he was proved to have asserted that "thenegroes had as much right to fight for their liberty as the whitepeople," had offered to head them in the enterprise, and had said that inthree weeks he would have two thousand men. But in no case, it appears,did these men obtain the confidence of the slaves; and the whole plot wasconceived and organized, so far as appears, without the slightestco-operation from any white man.

The trial of the conspirators began on Wednesday, June 19. At the requestof the intendant, Justices Kennedy and Parker summoned five freeholders(Messrs. Drayton, Heyward, Pringle, Legare, and Turnbull) to constitute acourt, under the provisions of the Act "for the better ordering andgoverning negroes and other slaves." The intendant laid the case beforethem, with a list of prisoners and witnesses. By a vote of the court, allspectators were excluded, except the owners and counsel of the slavesconcerned. No other colored person was allowed to enter the jail, and astrong guard of soldiers was kept always on duty around the building.Under these general arrangements the trials proceeded with elaborateformality, though with some variations from ordinary usage,--as was,indeed, required by the statute.

For instance, the law provided that the testimony of any Indian or slavecould be received, without oath, against a slave or free colored person,although it was not valid, even under oath, against a white. But it isbest to quote the official language in respect to the rules adopted: "Asthe court had been organized under a statute of a peculiar and localcharacter, and intended for the government of a distinct class of personsin the community, they were bound to conform their proceedings to itsprovisions, which depart in many essential features from the principlesof the common law and some of the settled rules of evidence. The court,however, determined to adopt those rules, whenever they were notrepugnant to nor expressly excepted by that statute, nor inconsistentwith the local situation and policy of the State; and laid down for theirown government the following regulations: First, that no slave should betried except in the presence of his owner or his counsel, and that noticeshould be given in every case at least one day before the trial; second,that the testimony of one witness, unsupported by additional evidence orby circumstances, should lead to no conviction of a capital nature;third, that the witnesses should be confronted with the accused and witheach other in every case, except where testimony was given under a solemnpledge that the names of the witnesses should not be divulged,--as theydeclared, in some instances, that they apprehended being murdered by theblacks, if it was known that they had volunteered their evidence; fourth,that the prisoners might be represented by counsel, whenever this wasrequested by the owners of the slaves, or by the prisoners themselves iffree; fifth, that the statements or defences of the accused should beheard in every case, and they be permitted themselves to examine anywitness they thought proper."

It is singular to observe how entirely these rules seem to concede that aslave's life has no sort of value to himself, but only to his master. Hismaster, not he himself, must choose whether it be worth while to employcounsel. His master, not his mother or his wife, must be present at thetrial. So far is this carried, that the provision to exclude "persons whohad no particular interest in the slaves accused" seems to have excludedevery acknowledged relative they had in the world, and admitted onlythose who had invested in them so many dollars. And yet the very firstsection of that part of the statute under which they were tried lays downan explicit recognition of their humanity: "And whereas natural justiceforbids that any _person_, of what condition soever, should be condemnedunheard." So thoroughly, in the whole report, are the ideas of person andchattel intermingled, that when Gov. Bennett petitions for mitigation ofsentence in the case of his slave Batteau, and closes, "I ask this,gentlemen, as an individual incurring a severe and distressing loss," itis really impossible to decide whether the predominant emotion beaffectional or financial.

It is a matter of painful necessity to acknowledge that the proceedingsof most slave-tribunals have justified the honest admission of Gov. Adamsof South Carolina, in his legislative message of 1855: "Theadministration of our laws, in relation to our colored population, by ourcourts of magistrates and freeholders, as these courts are at presentconstituted, calls loudly for reform. Their decisions are rarely inconformity with justice or humanity." This trial, as reported by thejustices themselves, seems to have been no worse than theaverage,--perhaps better. In all, thirty-five were sentenced to death,thirty-four to transportation, twenty-seven acquitted by the court, andtwenty-five discharged without trial, by the Committee ofVigilance,--making in all one hundred and twenty-one.

The sentences pronounced by Judge Kennedy upon the leading rebels, whilepaying a high tribute to their previous character, of course bring alllaw and all Scripture to prove the magnitude of their crime. "It is amelancholy fact," he says, "that those servants in whom we reposed themost unlimited confidence have been the principal actors in this wickedscheme." Then he rises into earnest appeals. "Are you incapable of theheavenly influence of that gospel, all whose paths are peace? It was toreconcile us to our destiny on earth, and to enable us to discharge withfidelity all our duties, whether as master or servant, that thoseinspired precepts were imparted by Heaven to fallen man."

To these reasonings the prisoners had, of course, nothing to say; but theofficial reports bear the strongest testimony to their fortitude. "Rolla,when arraigned, affected not to understand the charge against him, and,when it was at his request further explained to him, assumed, withwonderful adroitness, astonishment and surprise. He was remarkable,throughout his trial, for great presence and composure of mind. When hewas informed he was convicted, and was advised to prepare for death,though he had previously (but after his trial) confessed his guilt, heappeared perfectly confounded, but exhibited no signs of fear. In Ned'sbehavior there was nothing remarkable; but his countenance was stern andimmovable, even whilst he was receiving the sentence of death: from hislooks it was impossible to discover or conjecture what were his feelings.Not so with Peter: for in his countenance were strongly markeddisappointed ambition, revenge, indignation, and an anxiety to know howfar the discoveries had extended; and the same emotions were exhibited inhis conduct. He did not appear to fear personal consequences, for hiswhole behavior indicated the reverse; but exhibited an evident anxietyfor the success of their plan, in which his whole soul was embarked. Hiscountenance and behavior were the same when he received his sentence; andhis only words were, on retiring, 'I suppose you'll let me see my wifeand family before I die?' and that not in a supplicating tone. When hewas asked, a day or two after, if it was possible he could wish to seehis master and family murdered, who had treated him so kindly, he onlyreplied to the question by a smile. Monday's behavior was not peculiar.When he was before the court, his arms were folded; he heard thetestimony given against him, and received his sentence, with the utmostfirmness and composure. But no description can accurately convey toothers the impression which the trial, defence, and appearance of GullahJack made on those who witnessed the workings of his cunning and rudeaddress. When arrested and brought before the court, in company withanother African named Jack, the property of the estate of Pritchard, heassumed so much ignorance, and looked and acted the fool so well, thatsome of the court could not believe that this was the necromancer who wassought after. This conduct he continued when on his trial, until he sawthe witnesses and heard the testimony as it progressed against him; when,in an instant, his countenance was lighted up as if by lightning, and hiswildness and vehemence of gesture, and the malignant glance with which heeyed the witnesses who appeared against him, all indicated the savage,who indeed had been _caught_, but not _tamed_. His courage, however, soonforsook him. When he received sentence of death, he earnestly imploredthat a fortnight longer might be allowed him, and then a week longer,which he continued earnestly to solicit until he was taken from thecourt-room to his cell; and when he was carried to execution, he gave uphis spirit without firmness or composure."

Not so with Denmark Vesey. The plans of years were frustrated; his ownlife and liberty were thrown away; many others were sacrificed throughhis leadership; and one more was added to the list of unsuccessfulinsurrections. All these disastrous certainties he faced calmly, and gavehis whole mind composedly to the conducting of his defence. With his armstightly folded, and his eyes fixed on the floor, he attentively followedevery item of the testimony. He heard the witnesses examined by thecourt, and cross-examined by his own counsel; and it is evident from thenarrative of the presiding judge, that he showed no small skill andpolicy in the searching cross-examination which he then applied. Thefears, the feelings, the consciences, of those who had betrayed him, allwere in turn appealed to; but the facts were quite overpowering, and itwas too late to aid his comrades or himself. Then turning to the court,he skilfully availed himself of the point which had so much impressed thecommunity: the intrinsic improbability that a man in his position offreedom and prosperity should sacrifice every thing to free other people.If they thought it so incredible, why not give him the benefit of theincredibility? The act being, as they stated, one of infatuation, whyconvict him of it on the bare word of men who, by their own showing, hadnot only shared the infatuation, but proved traitors to it? An ingeniousdefence,--indeed, the only one which could by any possibility besuggested, anterior to the days of Choate and somnambulism; but in vain.He was sentenced; and it was not, apparently, till the judge reproachedhim for the destruction he had brought on his followers, that he showedany sign of emotion. Then the tears came into his eyes. But he said notanother word.

The executions took place on five different days; and, bad as they were,they might have been worse. After the imaginary Negro Plot of New York,in 1741, thirteen negroes had been judicially burned alive; two hadsuffered the same sentence at Charleston in 1808; and it was undoubtedlysome mark of progress, that in this case the gallows took the place ofthe flames. Six were hanged on July 2, upon Blake's lands, nearCharleston,--Denmark Vesey, Peter Poyas, Jesse, Ned, Rolla, andBatteau,--the last three being slaves of the governor himself. GullahJack and John were executed "on the Lines," near Charleston, on July 12;and twenty-two more on July 26. Four others suffered their fate on July30; and one more, William Garner, effected a temporary escape, wascaptured, and tried by a different court, and was finally executed onAug. 9.

The self-control of these men did not desert them at their execution.When the six leaders suffered death, the report says, Peter Poyasrepeated his charge of secrecy: "Do not open your lips; die silent, asyou shall see me do;" and all obeyed. And though afterwards, as theparticulars of the plot became better known, there was less inducement toconceal, yet every one of the thirty-five seems to have met his fatebravely, except the conjurer. Gov. Bennett, in his letter, expresses muchdissatisfaction at the small amount learned from the participators. "Tothe last hour of the existence of several who appeared to be conspicuousactors in the drama, they were pressingly importuned to make furtherconfessions,"--this "importuning" being more clearly defined in a letterof Mr. Ferguson, owner of two of the slaves, as "having them severelycorrected." Yet so little was obtained, that the governor was compelledto admit at last that the really essential features of the plot were notknown to any of the informers.

It is to be remembered, that the plot failed because a man unauthorizedand incompetent, William Paul, undertook to make enlistments on his ownaccount. He happened on one of precisely that class of men,--favoredhouse-servants,--whom his leaders had expressly reserved for more skilfulmanipulations. He being thus detected, one would have supposed that thediscovery of many accomplices would at once have followed. The numberenlisted was counted by thousands; yet for twenty-nine days after thefirst treachery, and during twenty days of official examination, onlyfifteen of the conspirators were ferreted out. Meanwhile the informers'names had to be concealed with the utmost secrecy; they were in peril oftheir lives from the slaves,--William Paul scarcely dared to go beyondthe doorstep,--and the names of important witnesses examined in June werestill suppressed in the official report published in October. That aconspiracy on so large a scale should have existed in embryo during fouryears, and in an active form for several months, and yet have been sowell managed, that, after actual betrayal, the authorities were againthrown off their guard, and the plot nearly brought to a headagain,--this certainly shows extraordinary ability in the leaders, and atalent for concerted action on the part of slaves generally, with whichthey have hardly been credited.

And it is also to be noted, that the range of the conspiracy extended farbeyond Charleston. It was proved that Frank, slave of Mr. Ferguson,living nearly forty miles from the city, had boasted of having enlistedfour plantations in his immediate neighborhood. It was in evidence thatthe insurgents "were trying all round the country, from Georgetown andSantee round about to Combahee, to get people;" and, after the trials, itwas satisfactorily established that Vesey "had been in the country as farnorth as South Santee, and southwardly as far as the Euhaws, which isbetween seventy and eighty miles from the city." Mr. Ferguson himselftestified that the good order of any gang was no evidence of theirignorance of the plot, since the behavior of his own initiated slaves hadbeen unexceptionable, in accordance with Vesey's directions.

With such an organization and such materials, there was nothing in theplan which could be pronounced incredible or impracticable. There is noreason why they should not have taken the city. After all the governor'sentreaties as to moderate language, the authorities were obliged to admitthat South Carolina had been saved from a "horrible catastrophe." "For,although success could not possibly have attended the conspirators, yet,before their suppression, Charleston would probably have been wrapped inflames, many valuable lives would have been sacrificed, and an immenseloss of property sustained by the citizens, even though no otherdistressing occurrences were experienced by them; while the plantationsin the lower country would have been disorganized, and the agriculturalinterests have sustained an enormous loss." The Northern journals hadalready expressed still greater anxieties. "It appears," said theNew-York _Commercial Advertiser_, "that, but for the timely disclosure,the whole of that State would in a few days have witnessed the horridspectacle once witnessed in St. Domingo."

My friend, David Lee Child, has kindly communicated to me a few memorandaof a conversation held long since with a free colored man who had workedin Vesey's shop during the time of the insurrection; and these generallyconfirm the official narratives. "I was a young man then," he said; "and,owing to the policy of preventing communication between free coloredpeople and slaves, I had little opportunity of ascertaining how theslaves felt about it. I know that several of them were abused in thestreet, and some put in prison, for appearing in sackcloth. There was anordinance of the city, that any slave who wore a badge of mourning shouldbe imprisoned and flogged. They generally got the law, which isthirty-nine lashes; but sometimes it was according to the decision of thecourt." "I heard, at the time, of arms being buried in coffins atSullivan's Island." "In the time of the insurrection, the slaves weretried in a small room in the jail where they were confined. No coloredperson was allowed to go within two squares of the prison. Those twosquares were filled with troops, five thousand of whom were on duty dayand night. I was told, Vesey said to those that tried him, that the workof insurrection would go on; but as none but white persons were permittedto be present, I cannot tell whether he said it."

During all this time there was naturally a silence in the Charlestonjournals, which strongly contrasts with the extreme publicity at lastgiven to the testimony. Even the _National Intelligencer_, at Washington,passed lightly over the affair, and deprecated the publication ofparticulars. The Northern editors, on the other hand, eager for items,were constantly complaining of this reserve, and calling for furtherintelligence. "The Charleston papers," said the Hartford _Courant_ ofJuly 16, "have been silent on the subject of the insurrection; butletters from this city state that it has created much alarm, and that twobrigades of troops were under arms for some time to suppress any risingsthat might have taken place." "You will doubtless hear," wrote aCharleston correspondent of the same paper, just before, "many reports,and some exaggerated ones." "There was certainly a disposition to revolt,and some preparations made, principally by the plantation negroes, totake the city." "We hoped they would progress so far as to enable us toascertain and punish the ringleaders." "Assure my friends that we feel inperfect security, although the number of nightly guards, and otherdemonstrations, may induce a belief among strangers to the contrary."

The strangers would have been very blind strangers, if they had not beenmore influenced by the actions of the Charleston citizens than by theirwords. The original information was given on May 25, 1822. The timepassed, and the plot failed on June 16. A plan for its revival on July 2proved abortive. Yet a letter from Charleston, in the Hartford _Courant_of Aug. 6, represented the panic as unabated: "Great preparations aremaking, and all the military are put in preparation to guard against anyattempt of the same kind again; but we have no apprehension of its beingrepeated." On Aug. 10, Gov. Bennett wrote the letter already mentioned,which was printed and distributed as a circular, its object being todeprecate undue alarm. "Every individual in the State is interested,whether in regard to his own property, or the reputation of the State, ingiving no more importance to the transaction than it justly merits." Yet,five days after this,--two months after the first danger had passed,--are-enforcement of United-States troops arrived at Fort Moultrie; and,during the same month, several different attempts were made by smallparties of armed negroes to capture the mails between Charleston andSavannah, and a reward of two hundred dollars was offered for theirdetection.

The first official report of the trials was prepared by the intendant, byrequest of the city council. It passed through four editions in a fewmonths,--the first and fourth being published in Charleston, and thesecond and third in Boston. Being, however, but a brief pamphlet, it didnot satisfy the public curiosity; and in October of the same year (1822),a larger volume appeared at Charleston, edited by the magistrates whopresided at the trials,--Lionel H. Kennedy and Thomas Parker. It containsthe evidence in full, and a separate narrative of the whole affair, morecandid and lucid than any other which I have found in the newspapers orpamphlets of the day. It exhibits that rarest of all qualities in aslave-community, a willingness to look facts in the face. This narrativehas been faithfully followed, with the aid of such cross-lights as couldbe secured from many other quarters, in preparing the present history.

The editor of the first official report racked his brains to discover thespecial causes of the revolt, and never trusted himself to allude to thegeneral one. The negroes rebelled because they were deluded byCongressional eloquence; or because they were excited by a churchsquabble; or because they had been spoilt by mistaken indulgences, suchas being allowed to learn to read,--"a misguided benevolence," as hepronounces it. So the Baptist Convention seems to have thought it wasbecause they were not Baptists; and an Episcopal pamphleteer, becausethey were not Episcopalians. It never seems to occur to any of thesespectators, that these people rebelled simply because they were slaves,and wished to be free.

No doubt, there were enough special torches with which a man so skilfulas Denmark Vesey could kindle up these dusky powder-magazines; but, afterall, the permanent peril lay in the powder. So long as that existed,every thing was incendiary. Any torn scrap in the street might contain aMissouri-Compromise speech, or a report of the last battle in St.Domingo, or one of those able letters of Boyer's which were winning thepraise of all, or one of John Randolph's stirring speeches in Englandagainst the slave-trade. The very newspapers which reported the happyextinction of the insurrection by the hanging of the last conspirator,William Garner, reported also, with enthusiastic indignation, themassacre of the Greeks at Constantinople and at Scio; and then theNorthern editors, breaking from their usual reticence, pointed out theinconsistency of Southern journals in printing, side by side,denunciations of Mohammedan slave-sales, and advertisements of those ofChristians.

Of course the insurrection threw the whole slavery question open to thepublic. "We are sorry to see," said the _National Intelligencer_ of Aug.31, "that a discussion of the hateful Missouri question is likely to berevived, in consequence of the allusions to its supposed effect inproducing the late servile insurrection in South Carolina." A member ofthe Board of Public Works of South Carolina published in the Baltimore_American Farmer_ an essay urging the encouragement of white laborers,and hinting at the ultimate abolition of slavery "if it should ever bethought desirable." More boldly still, a pamphlet appeared in Charleston,under the signature of "Achates," arguing with remarkable sagacity andforce against the whole system of slave-labor _in towns_; and proposingthat all slaves in Charleston should be sold or transferred to theplantations, and their places supplied by white labor. It is interestingto find many of the facts and arguments of Helper's "Impending Crisis"anticipated in this courageous tract, written under the pressure of acrisis which had just been so narrowly evaded. The author is described inthe preface as "a soldier and patriot of the Revolution, whose name, didwe feel ourselves at liberty to use it, would stamp a peculiar weight andvalue on his opinions." It was commonly attributed to Gen. ThomasPinckney.

Another pamphlet of the period, also published in Charleston, recommendedas a practical cure for insurrection the copious administration ofEpiscopal-Church services, and the prohibition of negroes from attendingFourth-of-July celebrations. On this last point it is more consistentthan most pro-slavery arguments. "The celebration of the Fourth of Julybelongs _exclusively_ to the white population of the United States. TheAmerican Revolution was _a family quarrel among equals_. In this thenegroes had no concern; their condition remained, and must remain,unchanged. They have no more to do with the celebration of that day thanwith the landing of the Pilgrims on the rock at Plymouth. It thereforeseems to me improper to allow these people to be present on theseoccasions. In our speeches and orations, much, and sometimes more than ispolitically necessary, is said about personal liberty, which negroauditors know not how to apply except by running the parallel with theirown condition. They therefore imbibe false notions of their own personalrights, and give reality in their minds to what has no real existence.The peculiar state of our community must be steadily kept in view. This,I am gratified to learn, will in some measure be promoted by theinstitution of the South Carolina Association."

On the other hand, more stringent laws became obviously necessary to keepdown the advancing intelligence of the Charleston slaves. Dangerousknowledge must be excluded from without and from within. For the firstpurpose the South Carolina Legislature passed, in December, 1822, the Actfor the imprisonment of Northern colored seamen, which afterwardsproduced so much excitement. For the second object, the Grand Jury, aboutthe same time, presented as a grievance "the number of schools which arekept within the city by persons of color," and proposed theirprohibition. This was the encouragement given to the intellectualprogress of the slaves; while, as a reward for betraying them, Pensil,the free colored man who advised with Devany, received a present of onethousand dollars; and Devany himself had what was rightly judged to bethe higher gift of freedom, and was established in business, with liberalmeans, as a drayman. He lived long in Charleston, thriving greatly in hisvocation, and, according to the newspapers, enjoyed the privilege ofbeing the only man of property in the State whom a special statuteexempted from taxation.

More than half a century has passed since the incidents of this truestory closed. It has not vanished from the memories of South Carolinians,though the printed pages which once told it have gradually disappearedfrom sight. The intense avidity which at first grasped at every incidentof the great insurrectionary plot was succeeded by a prolonged distastefor the memory of the tale; and the official reports which told whatslaves had once planned and dared have now come to be among the rarest ofAmerican historical documents. In 1841, a friend of the writer, thenvisiting South Carolina, heard from her hostess, for the first time, theevents which are recounted here. On asking to see the reports of thetrials, she was cautiously told that the only copy in the house, afterbeing carefully kept for years under lock and key, had been burnt atlast, lest it should reach the dangerous eyes of the slaves. The samething had happened, it was added, in many other families. This partiallyaccounts for the great difficulty now to be found in obtaining a singlecopy of either publication; and this is why, to the readers of Americanhistory, Denmark Vesey and Peter Poyas have commonly been but the shadowsof names.

NAT TURNER'S INSURRECTION

During the year 1831, up to the 23d of August, the Virginia newspapersseem to have been absorbed in the momentous problems which then occupiedthe minds of intelligent American citizens: What Gen. Jackson should dowith the scolds, and what with the disreputables? should South Carolinabe allowed to nullify? and would the wives of cabinet ministers call onMrs. Eaton? It is an unfailing opiate to turn over the drowsy files ofthe Richmond _Enquirer_, until the moment when those dry and dusty pagesare suddenly kindled into flame by the torch of Nat Turner. Then theterror flared on increasing, until the remotest Southern States werefound shuddering at nightly rumors of insurrection; until far-offEuropean colonies--Antigua, Martinique, Caraccas, Tortola--recognized bysome secret sympathy the same epidemic alarms; until the very boldestwords of freedom were reported as uttered in the Virginia House ofDelegates with unclosed doors; until an obscure young man named Garrisonwas indicted at common law in North Carolina, and had a price set uponhis head by the Legislature of Georgia.

Near the south-eastern border of Virginia, in Southampton County, thereis a neighborhood known as "The Cross Keys." It lies fifteen miles fromJerusalem, the county-town, or "court-house," seventy miles from Norfolk,and about as far from Richmond. It is some ten or fifteen miles fromMurfreesborough in North Carolina, and about twenty-five from the GreatDismal Swamp. Up to Sunday, the 21st of August, 1831, there was nothingto distinguish it from any other rural, lethargic, slipshod Virginianeighborhood, with the due allotment of mansion-houses and log huts,tobacco-fields and "old-fields," horses, dogs, negroes, "poor whitefolks," so called, and other white folks, poor without being called so.One of these last was Joseph Travis, who had recently married the widowof one Putnam Moore, and had unfortunately wedded to himself her negroesalso.

In the woods on the plantation of Joseph Travis, upon the Sunday justnamed, six slaves met at noon for what is called in the Northern States apicnic, and in the Southern a barbecue. The bill of fare was to besimple: one brought a pig, and another some brandy, giving to the meetingan aspect so cheaply convivial that no one would have imagined it to bethe final consummation of a conspiracy which had been for six months inpreparation. In this plot four of the men had been alreadyinitiated--Henry, Hark or Hercules, Nelson, and Sam. Two others werenovices, Will and Jack by name. The party had remained together fromtwelve to three o'clock, when a seventh man joined them,--a short, stout,powerfully built person, of dark mulatto complexion, and strongly markedAfrican features, but with a face full of expression and resolution. Thiswas Nat Turner.

He was at this time nearly thirty-one years old, having been born on the2d of October, 1800. He had belonged originally to Benjamin Turner,--fromwhom he took his last name, slaves having usually no patronymic;--hadthen been transferred to Putnam Moore, and then to his present owner. Hehad, by his own account, felt himself singled out from childhood for somegreat work; and he had some peculiar marks on his person, which, joinedto his mental precocity, were enough to occasion, among his youthfulcompanions, a superstitious faith in his gifts and destiny. He had somemechanical ingenuity also; experimentalized very early in making paper,gunpowder, pottery, and in other arts, which, in later life, he was foundthoroughly to understand. His moral faculties appeared strong, so thatwhite witnesses admitted that he had never been known to swear an oath,to drink a drop of spirits, or to commit a theft. And, in general, somarked were his early peculiarities that people said "he had too muchsense to be raised; and, if he was, he would never be of any use as aslave." This impression of personal destiny grew with his growth: hefasted, prayed, preached, read the Bible, heard voices when he walkedbehind his plough, and communicated his revelations to the awe-struckslaves. They told him, in return, that, "if they had his sense, theywould not serve any master in the world."

The biographies of slaves can hardly be individualized; they belong tothe class. We know bare facts; it is only the general experience of humanbeings in like condition which can clothe them with life. The outlinesare certain, the details are inferential. Thus, for instance, we knowthat Nat Turner's young wife was a slave; we know that she belonged to adifferent master from himself; we know little more than this, but this ismuch. For this is equivalent to saying, that, by day or by night, herhusband had no more power to protect her than the man who lies bound upona plundered vessel's deck has power to protect his wife on board thepirate schooner disappearing in the horizon. She may be well treated, shemay be outraged; it is in the powerlessness that the agony lies. Thereis, indeed, one thing more which we do know of this young woman: theVirginia newspapers state that she was tortured under the lash, after herhusband's execution, to make her produce his papers: this is all.

What his private experiences and special privileges or wrongs may havebeen, it is therefore now impossible to say. Travis was declared to be"more humane and fatherly to his slaves than any man in the county;" butit is astonishing how often this phenomenon occurs in the contemporaryannals of slave insurrections. The chairman of the county court alsostated, in pronouncing sentence, that Nat Turner had spoken of his masteras "only too indulgent;" but this, for some reason, does not appear inhis printed Confession, which only says, "He was a kind master, andplaced the greatest confidence in me." It is very possible that it mayhave been so, but the printed accounts of Nat Turner's person looksuspicious: he is described in Gov. Floyd's proclamation as having a scaron one of his temples, also one on the back of his neck, and a large knoton one of the bones of his right arm, produced by a blow; and althoughthese were explained away in Virginia newspapers as having been producedby fights with his companions, yet such affrays are entirely foreign tothe admitted habits of the man. It must therefore remain an openquestion, whether the scars and the knot were produced by black hands orby white.

Whatever Nat Turner's experiences of slavery might have been, it iscertain that his plans were not suddenly adopted, but that he had broodedover them for years. To this day there are traditions among the Virginiaslaves of the keen devices of "Prophet Nat." If he was caught with limeand lampblack in hand, conning over a half-finished county-map on thebarn-door, he was always "planning what to do if he were blind"; or,"studying how to get to Mr. Francis's house." When he had called ameeting of slaves, and some poor whites came eavesdropping, the poorwhites at once became the subjects for discussion: he incidentallymentioned that the masters had been heard threatening to drive them away;one slave had been ordered to shoot Mr. Jones's pigs, another to teardown Mr. Johnson's fences. The poor whites, Johnson and Jones, ran hometo see to their homesteads, and were better friends than ever to ProphetNat.

He never was a Baptist preacher, though such vocation has often beenattributed to him. The impression arose from his having immersed himself,during one of his periods of special enthusiasm, together with a poorwhite man named Brantley. "About this time," he says in his Confession,"I told these things to a white man, on whom it had a wonderful effect;and he ceased from his wickedness, and was attacked immediately with acutaneous eruption, and the blood oozed from the pores of his skin, andafter praying and fasting nine days he was healed. And the Spiritappeared to me again, and said, as the Saviour had been baptized, soshould we be also; and when the white people would not let us be baptizedby the church, we went down into the water together, in the sight of manywho reviled us, and were baptized by the Spirit. After this I rejoicedgreatly, and gave thanks to God."

The religious hallucinations narrated in his Confession seem to have beenas genuine as the average of such things, and are very well expressed.The account reads quite like Jacob Behmen. He saw white spirits and blackspirits contending in the skies; the sun was darkened, the thunderrolled. "And the Holy Ghost was with me, and said, 'Behold me as I standin the heavens!' And I looked, and saw the forms of men in differentattitudes. And there were lights in the sky, to which the children ofdarkness gave other names than what they really were; for they were thelights of the Saviour's hands, stretched forth from east to west, even asthey were extended on the cross on Calvary, for the redemption ofsinners." He saw drops of blood on the corn: this was Christ's blood,shed for man. He saw on the leaves in the woods letters and numbers andfigures of men,--the same symbols which he had seen in the skies. On May12, 1828, the Holy Spirit appeared to him, and proclaimed that the yokeof Jesus must fall on him, and he must fight against the serpent when thesign appeared. Then came an eclipse of the sun in February, 1831: thiswas the sign; then he must arise and prepare himself, and slay hisenemies with their own weapons; then also the seal was removed from hislips, and then he confided his plans to four associates.

When he came, therefore, to the barbecue on the appointed Sunday, andfound not these four only, but two others, his first question to theintruders was, how they came thither. To this Will answered manfully,that his life was worth no more than the others, and "his liberty was asdear to him." This admitted him to confidence; and as Jack was known tobe entirely under Hark's influence, the strangers were no bar to theirdiscussion. Eleven hours they remained there, in anxious consultation:one can imagine those dusky faces, beneath the funereal woods, and amidthe flickering of pine-knot torches, preparing that stern revenge whoseshuddering echoes should ring through the land so long. Two things wereat last decided: to begin their work that night; and to begin it with amassacre so swift and irresistible as to create in a few days more terrorthan many battles, and so spare the need of future bloodshed. "It wasagreed that we should commence at home on that night, and, until we hadarmed and equipped ourselves and gained sufficient force, neither age norsex was to be spared: which was invariably adhered to."

John Brown invaded Virginia with nineteen men, and with the avowedresolution to take no life but in self-defence. Nat Turner attackedVirginia from within, with six men, and with the determination to spareno life until his power was established. John Brown intended to passrapidly through Virginia, and then retreat to the mountains. Nat Turnerintended to "conquer Southampton County as the white men did in theRevolution, and then retreat, if necessary, to the Dismal Swamp." Eachplan was deliberately matured; each was in its way practicable; but eachwas defeated by a single false step, as will soon appear.

We must pass over the details of horror, as they occurred during the nexttwenty-four hours. Swift and stealthy as Indians, the black men passedfrom house to house,--not pausing, not hesitating, as their terrible workwent on. In one thing they were humaner than Indians, or than white menfighting against Indians: there was no gratuitous outrage beyond thedeath-blow itself, no insult, no mutilation; but in every house theyentered, that blow fell on man, woman, and child,--nothing that had awhite skin was spared. From every house they took arms and ammunition,and from a few money. On every plantation they found recruits: thosedusky slaves, so obsequious to their master the day before, so prompt tosing and dance before his Northern visitors, were all swift to transformthemselves into fiends of retribution now; show them sword or musket, andthey grasped it, though it were an heirloom from Washington himself. Thetroop increased from house to house,--first to fifteen, then to forty,then to sixty. Some were armed with muskets, some with axes, some withscythes, some came on their masters' horses. As the numbers increased,they could be divided, and the awful work was carried on more rapidlystill. The plan then was for an advanced guard of horsemen to approacheach house at a gallop, and surround it till the others came up.Meanwhile, what agonies of terror must have taken place within, sharedalike by innocent and by guilty! what memories of wrongs inflicted onthose dusky creatures, by some,--what innocent participation, by others,in the penance! The outbreak lasted for but forty-eight hours; but,during that period, fifty-five whites were slain, without the loss of asingle slave.

One fear was needless, which to many a husband and father must haveintensified the last struggle. These negroes had been systematicallybrutalized from childhood; they had been allowed no legalized orpermanent marriage; they had beheld around them an habituallicentiousness, such as can scarcely exist except under slavery; some ofthem had seen their wives and sisters habitually polluted by the husbandsand the brothers of these fair white women who were now absolutely intheir power. Yet I have looked through the Virginia newspapers of thattime in vain for one charge of an indecent outrage on a woman againstthese triumphant and terrible slaves. Wherever they went, there wentdeath, and that was all. It is reported by some of the contemporarynewspapers, that a portion of this abstinence was the result ofdeliberate consultation among the insurrectionists; that some of themwere resolved on taking the white women for wives, but were overruled byNat Turner. If so, he is the only American slave-leader of whom we knowcertainly that he rose above the ordinary level of slave vengeance; andMrs. Stowe's picture of Dred's purposes is then precisely typical of his:"Whom the Lord saith unto us, 'Smite,' them will we smite. We will nottorment them with the scourge and fire, nor defile their women as theyhave done with ours. But we will slay them utterly, and consume them fromoff the face of the earth."

When the number of adherents had increased to fifty or sixty, Nat Turnerjudged it time to strike at the county-seat, Jerusalem. Thither a fewwhite fugitives had already fled, and couriers might thence be despatchedfor aid to Richmond and Petersburg, unless promptly intercepted. Besides,he could there find arms, ammunition, and money; though they had alreadyobtained, it is dubiously reported, from eight hundred to one thousanddollars. On the way it was necessary to pass the plantation of Mr.Parker, three miles from Jerusalem. Some of the men wished to stop hereand enlist some of their friends. Nat Turner objected, as the delay mightprove dangerous; he yielded at last, and it proved fatal.

He remained at the gate with six or eight men; thirty or forty went tothe house, half a mile distant. They remained too long, and he went aloneto hasten them. During his absence a party of eighteen white men came upsuddenly, dispersing the small guard left at the gate; and when the mainbody of slaves emerged from the house, they encountered, for the firsttime, their armed masters. The blacks halted; the whites advancedcautiously within a hundred yards, and fired a volley; on its beingreturned, they broke into disorder, and hurriedly retreated, leaving somewounded on the ground. The retreating whites were pursued, and were savedonly by falling in with another band of fresh men from Jerusalem, withwhose aid they turned upon the slaves, who in their turn fell intoconfusion. Turner, Hark, and about twenty men on horseback retreated insome order; the rest were scattered. The leader still planned to reachJerusalem by a private way, thus evading pursuit; but at last decided tostop for the night, in the hope of enlisting additional recruits.

During the night the number increased again to forty, and they encampedon Major Ridley's plantation. An alarm took place during thedarkness,--whether real or imaginary, does not appear,--and the menbecame scattered again. Proceeding to make fresh enlistments with thedaylight, they were resisted at Dr. Blunt's house, where his slaves,under his orders, fired upon them; and this, with a later attack from aparty of white men near Capt. Harris's, so broke up the whole force thatthey never re-united. The few who remained together agreed to separatefor a few hours to see if any thing could be done to revive theinsurrection, and meet again that evening at their original rendezvous.But they never reached it.

Gloomily came Nat Turner at nightfall into those gloomy woods whereforty-eight hours before he had revealed the details of his terrible plotto his companions. At the outset all his plans had succeeded; every thingwas as he predicted: the slaves had come readily at his call; the mastershad proved perfectly defenceless. Had he not been persuaded to pause atParker's plantation, he would have been master before now of the arms andammunition at Jerusalem; and with these to aid, and the Dismal Swamp fora refuge, he might have sustained himself indefinitely against hispursuers.

Now the blood was shed, the risk was incurred, his friends were killed orcaptured, and all for what? Lasting memories of terror, to be sure, forhis oppressors; but, on the other hand, hopeless failure for theinsurrection, and certain death for him. What a watch he must have keptthat night! To that excited imagination, which had always seen spirits inthe sky and blood-drops on the corn and hieroglyphic marks on the dryleaves, how full the lonely forest must have been of signs and solemnwarnings! Alone with the fox's bark, the rabbit's rustle, and thescreech-owl's scream, the self-appointed prophet brooded over hisdespair. Once creeping to the edge of the wood, he saw men stealthilyapproach on horseback. He fancied them some of his companions; but beforehe dared to whisper their ominous names, "Hark" or "Dred,"--for thelatter was the name, since famous, of one of his more recentrecruits,--he saw them to be white men, and shrank back stealthilybeneath his covert.

There he waited two days and two nights,--long enough to satisfy himselfthat no one would rejoin him, and that the insurrection had hopelesslyfailed. The determined, desperate spirits who had shared his plans werescattered forever, and longer delay would be destruction for him also. Hefound a spot which he judged safe, dug a hole under a pile of fence-railsin a field, and lay there for six weeks, only leaving it for a fewmoments at midnight to obtain water from a neighboring spring. Food hehad previously provided, without discovery, from a house near by.

Meanwhile an unbounded variety of rumors went flying through the State.The express which first reached the governor announced that the militiawere retreating before the slaves. An express to Petersburg further fixedthe number of militia at three hundred, and of blacks at eight hundred,and invented a convenient shower of rain to explain the dampened ardor ofthe whites. Later reports described the slaves as making three desperateattempts to cross the bridge over the Nottoway between Cross Keys andJerusalem, and stated that the leader had been shot in the attempt. Otheraccounts put the number of negroes at three hundred, all well mounted andarmed, with two or three white men as leaders. Their intention wassupposed to be to reach the Dismal Swamp, and they must be hemmed in fromthat side.

Indeed, the most formidable weapon in the hands of slave insurgents isalways this blind panic they create, and the wild exaggerations whichfollow. The worst being possible, every one takes the worst for granted.Undoubtedly a dozen armed men could have stifled this insurrection, evenafter it had commenced operations; but it is the fatal weakness of arural slaveholding community, that it can never furnish men promptly forsuch a purpose. "My first intention was," says one of the mostintelligent newspaper narrators of the affair, "to have attacked themwith thirty or forty men; but those who had families here were stronglyopposed to it."

As usual, each man was pinioned to his own hearth-stone. As usual, aidhad to be summoned from a distance; and, as usual, the United-Statestroops were the chief reliance. Col. House, commanding at Fort Monroe,sent at once three companies of artillery under Lieut.-Col. Worth, andembarked them on board the steamer "Hampton" for Suffolk. These werejoined by detachments from the United States ships "Warren" and"Natchez," the whole amounting to nearly eight hundred men. Two volunteercompanies went from Richmond, four from Petersburg, one from Norfolk, onefrom Portsmouth, and several from North Carolina. The militia of Norfolk,Nansemond, and Princess Anne Counties, and the United States troops atOld Point Comfort, were ordered to scour the Dismal Swamp, where it wasbelieved that two or three thousand fugitives were preparing to join theinsurgents. It was even proposed to send two companies from New York andone from New London to the same point.

When these various forces reached Southampton County, they found alllabor paralyzed and whole plantations abandoned. A letter from Jerusalem,dated Aug. 24, says, "The oldest inhabitant of our county has neverexperienced such a distressing time as we have had since Sunday nightlast.... Every house, room, and corner in this place is full of women andchildren, driven from home, who had to take the woods until they couldget to this place." "For many miles around their track," says another"the county is deserted by women and children." Still another writes,"Jerusalem is full of women, most of them from the other side of theriver,--about two hundred at Vix's." Then follow descriptions of thesufferings of these persons, many of whom had lain night after night inthe woods. But the immediate danger was at an end, the short-livedinsurrection was finished, and now the work of vengeance was to begin. Inthe frank phrase of a North Carolina correspondent, "The massacre of thewhites was over, and the white people had commenced the destruction ofthe negroes, which was continued after our men got there, from time totime, as they could fall in with them, all day yesterday." A postscriptadds, that "passengers by the Fayetteville stage say, that, by the latestaccounts, one hundred and twenty negroes had been killed,"--this beinglittle more than one day's work.

These murders were defended as Nat Turner defended his: a fearful blowmust be struck. In shuddering at the horrors of the insurrection, we haveforgotten the far greater horrors of its suppression.

The newspapers of the day contain many indignant protests against thecruelties which took place. "It is with pain," says a correspondent ofthe _National Intelligencer_, Sept. 7, 1831, "that we speak of anotherfeature of the Southampton Rebellion; for we have been most unwilling tohave our sympathies for the sufferers diminished or affected by theirmisconduct. We allude to the slaughter of many blacks without trial andunder circumstances of great barbarity.... We met with an individual ofintelligence who told us that he himself had killed between ten andfifteen.... We [the Richmond troop] witnessed with surprise thesanguinary temper of the population, who evinced a strong disposition toinflict immediate death on every prisoner."

There is a remarkable official document from Gen. Eppes, the officer incommand, to be found in the Richmond _Enquirer_ for Sept. 6, 1831. It isan indignant denunciation of precisely these outrages; and though herefuses to give details, he supplies their place by epithets:"revolting,"--"inhuman and not to be justified,"--"acts of barbarity andcruelty,"--"acts of atrocity,"--"this course of proceeding dignifies therebel and the assassin with the sanctity of martyrdom." And he ends bythreatening martial law upon all future transgressors. Such generalorders are not issued except in rather extreme cases. And in the parallelcolumns of the newspaper the innocent editor prints equally indignantdescriptions of Russian atrocities in Lithuania, where the Poles wereengaged in active insurrection, amid profuse sympathy from Virginia.

The truth is, it was a Reign of Terror. Volunteer patrols rode in alldirections, visiting plantations. "It was with the greatest difficulty,"said Gen. Brodnax before the House of Delegates, "and at the hazard ofpersonal popularity and esteem, that the coolest and most judicious amongus could exert an influence sufficient to restrain an indiscriminateslaughter of the blacks who were suspected." A letter from the Rev. G. W.Powell declares, "There are thousands of troops searching in everydirection, and many negroes are killed every day: the exact number willnever be ascertained." Petition after petition was subsequently presentedto the Legislature, asking compensation for slaves thus assassinatedwithout trial.

Men were tortured to death, burned, maimed, and subjected to namelessatrocities. The overseers were called on to point out any slaves whomthey distrusted, and if any tried to escape they were shot down. Nay,worse than this. "A party of horsemen started from Richmond with theintention of killing every colored person they saw in Southampton County.They stopped opposite the cabin of a free colored man, who was hoeing inhis little field. They called out, 'Is this Southampton County?' Hereplied, 'Yes, sir, you have just crossed the line, by yonder tree.' Theyshot him dead, and rode on." This is from the narrative of the editor ofthe Richmond _Whig_, who was then on duty in the militia, and protestedmanfully against these outrages. "Some of these scenes," he adds, "arehardly inferior in barbarity to the atrocities of the insurgents."

These were the masters' stories. If even these conceded so much, it wouldbe interesting to hear what the slaves had to report. I am indebted to myhonored friend, Lydia Maria Child, for some vivid recollections of thisterrible period, as noted down from the lips of an old colored woman,once well known in New York, Charity Bowery. "At the time of the oldProphet Nat," she said, "the colored folks was afraid to pray loud; forthe whites threatened to punish 'em dreadfully, if the least noise washeard. The patrols was low drunken whites; and in Nat's time, if theyheard any of the colored folks praying, or singing a hymn, they wouldfall upon 'em and abuse 'em, and sometimes kill 'em, afore master ormissis could get to 'em. The brightest and best was killed in Nat's time.The whites always suspect such ones. They killed a great many at a placecalled Duplon. They killed Antonio, a slave of Mr. J. Stanley, whom theyshot; then they pointed their guns at him, and told him to confess aboutthe insurrection. He told 'em he didn't know any thing about anyinsurrection. They shot several balls through him, quartered him, and puthis head on a pole at the fork of the road leading to the court." (Thisis no exaggeration, if the Virginia newspapers may be taken as evidence.)"It was there but a short time. He had no trial. They never do. In Nat'stime, the patrols would tie up the free colored people, flog 'em, and tryto make 'em lie against one another, and often killed them before anybodycould interfere. Mr. James Cole, high sheriff, said, if any of thepatrols came on his plantation, he would lose his life in defence of hispeople. One day he heard a patroller boasting how many niggers he hadkilled. Mr. Cole said, 'If you don't pack up, as quick as God Almightywill let you, and get out of this town, and never be seen in it again,I'll put you where dogs won't bark at you.' He went off, and wasn't seenin them parts again."

These outrages were not limited to the colored population; but otherinstances occurred which strikingly remind one of more recent times. AnEnglishman, named Robinson, was engaged in selling books at Petersburg.An alarm being given, one night, that five hundred blacks were marchingtowards the town, he stood guard, with others, on the bridge. After thepanic had a little subsided, he happened to remark, that "the blacks, asmen, were entitled to their freedom, and ought to be emancipated." Thisled to great excitement, and he was warned to leave town. He took passagein the stage, but the stage was intercepted. He then fled to a friend'shouse; the house was broken open, and he was dragged forth. The civilauthorities, being applied to, refused to interfere. The mob strippedhim, gave him a great number of lashes, and sent him on foot, naked,under a hot sun, to Richmond, whence he with difficulty found a passageto New York.

Of the capture or escape of most of that small band who met with NatTurner in the woods upon the Travis plantation, little can now be known.All appear among the list of convicted, except Henry and Will. Gen.Moore, who occasionally figures as second in command, in the newspapernarratives of that day, was probably the Hark or Hercules beforementioned; as no other of the confederates had belonged to Mrs. Travis,or would have been likely to bear her previous name of Moore. As usual,the newspapers state that most, if not all the slaves, were "the propertyof kind and indulgent masters."

The subordinate insurgents sought safety as they could. A free coloredman, named Will Artist, shot himself in the woods, where his hat wasfound on a stake and his pistol lying by him; another was found drowned;others were traced to the Dismal Swamp; others returned to their homes,and tried to conceal their share in the insurrection, assuring theirmasters that they had been forced, against their will, to join,--theusual defence in such cases. The number shot down at random must, by allaccounts, have amounted to many hundreds, but it is past all humanregistration now. The number who had a formal trial, such as it was, isofficially stated at fifty-five; of these, seventeen were convicted andhanged, twelve convicted and transported, twenty acquitted, and four freecolored men sent on for further trial and finally acquitted. "Not one ofthose known to be concerned escaped." Of those executed, one only was awoman, "Lucy, slave of John T. Barrow."

There is one touching story, in connection with these terribleretaliations, which rests on good authority, that of the Rev. M. B. Cox,a Liberian missionary, then in Virginia. In the hunt which followed themassacre, a slaveholder went into the woods, accompanied by a faithfulslave, who had been the means of saving his life during the insurrection.When they had reached a retired place in the forest, the man handed hisgun to his master, informing him that he could not live a slave anylonger, and requesting him either to free him or shoot him on the spot.The master took the gun, in some trepidation, levelled it at the faithfulnegro, and shot him through the heart. It is probable that thisslaveholder was a Dr. Blunt,--his being the only plantation where theslaves were reported as thus defending their masters. "If this be true,"said the Richmond _Enquirer_, when it first narrated this instance ofloyalty, "great will be the desert of these noble-minded Africans."

Meanwhile the panic of the whites continued; for, though all others mightbe disposed of, Nat Turner was still at large. We have positive evidenceof the extent of the alarm, although great efforts were afterwards madeto represent it as a trifling affair. A distinguished citizen of Virginiawrote, three months later, to the Hon. W. B. Seabrook of South Carolina,"From all that has come to my knowledge during and since that affair, Iam convinced most fully that every black preacher in the country east ofthe Blue Ridge was in the secret." "There is much reason to believe,"says the Governor's Message on Dec. 6, "that the spirit of insurrectionwas not confined to Southampton. Many convictions have taken placeelsewhere, and some few in distant counties." The withdrawal of theUnited States troops, after some ten days' service, was a signal forfresh excitement; and an address, numerously signed, was presented to theUnited States Government, imploring their continued stay. More than threeweeks after the first alarm, the governor sent a supply of arms intoPrince William, Fauquier, and Orange Counties. "From examinations whichhave taken place in other counties," says one of the best newspaperhistorians of the affair (in the Richmond _Enquirer_ of Sept. 6), "I fearthat the scheme embraced a wider sphere than I at first supposed." NatTurner himself, intentionally or otherwise, increased the confusion bydenying all knowledge of the North Carolina outbreak, and declaring thathe had communicated his plans to his four confederates within six months;while, on the other hand, a slave-girl, sixteen or seventeen years old,belonging to Solomon Parker, testified that she had heard the subjectdiscussed for eighteen months, and that at a meeting held during theprevious May some eight or ten had joined the plot.

It is astonishing to discover, by laborious comparison of newspaperfiles, how vast was the immediate range of these insurrectionary alarms.Every Southern State seems to have borne its harvest of terror. On theeastern shore of Maryland, great alarm was at once manifested, especiallyin the neighborhood of Easton and Snowhill; and the houses of colored menwere searched for arms even in Baltimore. In Delaware, there were similarrumors through Sussex and Dover Counties; there were arrests andexecutions; and in Somerset County great public meetings were held, todemand additional safeguards. On election-day in Seaford, Del., someyoung men, going out to hunt rabbits, discharged their guns in sport; themen being absent, all the women in the vicinity took to flight; the alarmspread like the "Ipswich Fright"; soon Seaford was thronged with armedmen; and when the boys returned from hunting, they found cannon drawn outto receive them.

In North Carolina, Raleigh and Fayetteville were put under militarydefence, and women and children concealed themselves in the swamps formany days. The rebel organization was supposed to include two thousand.Forty-six slaves were imprisoned in Union County, twenty-five in SampsonCounty, and twenty-three at least in Duplin County, some of whom wereexecuted. The panic also extended into Wayne, New Hanover, and LenoirCounties. Four men were shot without trial in Wilmington,--Nimrod,Abraham, Prince, and "Dan the Drayman," the latter a man of seventy,--andtheir heads placed on poles at the four corners of the town. Nearly twomonths afterwards the trials were still continuing; and at a still laterday, the governor in his proclamation recommended the formation ofcompanies of volunteers in every county.

In South Carolina, Gen. Hayne issued a proclamation "to prove thegroundlessness of the existing alarms,"--thus implying that seriousalarms existed. In Macon, Ga., the whole population were roused fromtheir beds at midnight by a report of a large force of armed negroes fivemiles off. In an hour, every woman and child was deposited in the largestbuilding of the town, and a military force hastily collected in front.The editor of the Macon _Messenger_ excused the poor condition of hispaper, a few days afterwards, by the absorption of his workmen in patrolduties and describes "dismay and terror" as the condition of the peopleof "all ages and sexes." In Jones, Twiggs, and Monroe Counties, the samealarms were reported; and in one place "several slaves were tied to atree, while a militia captain hacked at them with his sword."

In Alabama, at Columbus and Fort Mitchell, a rumor was spread of a jointconspiracy of Indians and negroes. At Claiborne the panic was stillgreater: the slaves were said to be thoroughly organized through thatpart of the State, and multitudes were imprisoned; the whole alarm beingapparently founded on one stray copy of the Boston _Liberator_.

In Tennessee, the Shelbyville _Freeman_ announced that an insurrectionaryplot had just been discovered, barely in time for its defeat, through thetreachery of a female slave. In Louisville, Ky., a similar organizationwas discovered or imagined, and arrests were made in consequence. "Thepapers, from motives of policy, do not notice the disturbance," wrote onecorrespondent to the Portland _Courier_. "Pity us!" he added.

But the greatest bubble burst in Louisiana. Capt. Alexander, an Englishtourist, arriving in New Orleans at the beginning of September, found thewhole city in tumult. Handbills had been issued, appealing to the slavesto rise against their masters, saying that all men were born equal,declaring that Hannibal was a black man, and that they also might havegreat leaders among them. Twelve hundred stand of weapons were said tohave been found in a black man's house; five hundred citizens were underarms, and four companies of regulars were ordered to the city, whosebarracks Alexander himself visited.

If such was the alarm in New Orleans, the story, of course, lost nothingby transmission to other slave States. A rumor reached Frankfort, Ky.,that the slaves already had possession of the coast, both above and belowNew Orleans. But the most remarkable circumstance is, that all this seemsto have been a mere revival of an old terror once before excited andexploded. The following paragraph had appeared in the Jacksonville, Ga.,_Observer_, during the spring previous:--

"FEARFUL DISCOVERY.--We were favored, by yesterday's mail, with a letter from New Orleans, of May 1, in which we find that an important discovery had been made a few days previous in that city. The following is an extract: 'Four days ago, as some planters were digging under ground, they found a square room containing eleven thousand stand of arms and fifteen thousand cartridges, each of the cartridges containing a bullet.' It is said the negroes intended to rise as soon as the sickly season began, and obtain possession of the city by massacring the white population. The same letter states that the mayor had prohibited the opening of Sunday schools for the instruction of blacks, under a penalty of five hundred dollars for the first offence, and, for the second, death."

Such were the terrors that came back from nine other slave States, as theecho of the voice of Nat Turner. And when it is also known that thesubject was at once taken up by the legislatures of other States, wherethere was no public panic, as in Missouri and Tennessee; and when,finally, it is added that reports of insurrection had been arriving allthat year from Rio Janeiro, Martinique, St. Jago, Antigua, Caraccas, andTortola,--it is easy to see with what prolonged distress the accumulatedterror must have weighed down upon Virginia during the two months thatNat Turner lay hid.

True, there were a thousand men in arms in Southampton County, to inspiresecurity. But the blow had been struck by only seven men before; andunless there were an armed guard in every house, who could tell but anyhouse might at any moment be the scene of new horrors? They might kill orimprison negroes by day, but could they resist their avengers by night?"The half cannot be told," wrote a lady from another part of Virginia, atthis time, "of the distresses of the people. In Southampton County, thescene of the insurrection, the distress beggars description. A gentlemanwho has been there says that even here, where there has been great alarm,we have no idea of the situation of those in that county.... I do nothesitate to believe that many negroes around us would join in a massacreas horrible as that which has taken place, if an opportunity shouldoffer."

Meanwhile the cause of all this terror was made the object of desperatesearch. On Sept. 17 the governor offered a reward of five hundred dollarsfor his capture; and there were other rewards, swelling the amount toeleven hundred dollars,--but in vain. No one could track or trap him. OnSept. 30 a minute account of his capture appeared in the newspapers, butit was wholly false. On Oct. 7 there was another, and on Oct. 18 another;yet all without foundation. Worn out by confinement in his little cave,Nat Turner grew more adventurous, and began to move about stealthily bynight, afraid to speak to any human being, but hoping to obtain someinformation that might aid his escape. Returning regularly to his retreatbefore daybreak, he might possibly have continued this mode of life untilpursuit had ceased, had not a dog succeeded where men had failed. Thecreature accidentally smelt out the provisions hid in the cave, andfinally led thither his masters, two negroes, one of whom was namedNelson. On discovering the formidable fugitive, they fled precipitately,when he hastened to retreat in an opposite direction. This was on Oct.15; and from this moment the neighborhood was all alive with excitement,and five or six hundred men undertook the pursuit.

It shows a more than Indian adroitness in Nat Turner to have escapedcapture any longer. The cave, the arms, the provisions, were found; and,lying among them, the notched stick of this miserable Robinson Crusoe,marked with five weary weeks and six days. But the man was gone. For tendays more he concealed himself among the wheat-stacks on Mr. Francis'splantation, and during this time was reduced almost to despair. Once hedecided to surrender himself, and walked by night within two miles ofJerusalem before his purpose failed him. Three times he tried to get outof that neighborhood, but in vain: travelling by day was of course out ofthe question, and by night he found it impossible to elude the patrol.Again and again, therefore, he returned to his hiding-place; and, duringhis whole two months' liberty, never went five miles from the Cross Keys.On the 25th of October, he was at last discovered by Mr. Francis as hewas emerging from a stack. A load of buckshot was instantly discharged athim, twelve of which passed through his hat as he fell to the ground. Heescaped even then; but his pursuers were rapidly concentrating upon him,and it is perfectly astonishing that he could have eluded them for fivedays more.

On Sunday, Oct. 30, a man named Benjamin Phipps, going out for the firsttime on patrol duty, was passing at noon a clearing in the woods where anumber of pine-trees had long since been felled. There was a motion amongtheir boughs; he stopped to watch it; and through a gap in the brancheshe saw, emerging from a hole in the earth beneath, the face of NatTurner. Aiming his gun instantly, Phipps called on him to surrender. Thefugitive, exhausted with watching and privation, entangled in thebranches, armed only with a sword, had nothing to do but toyield,--sagaciously reflecting, also, as he afterwards explained, thatthe woods were full of armed men, and that he had better trust fortunefor some later chance of escape, instead of desperately attempting itthen. He was correct in the first impression, since there were fiftyarmed scouts within a circuit of two miles. His insurrection ended whereit began; for this spot was only a mile and a half from the house ofJoseph Travis.

Tom, emaciated, ragged, "a mere scarecrow," still wearing the hatperforated with buckshot, with his arms bound to his sides, he was drivenbefore the levelled gun to the nearest house, that of a Mr. Edwards. Hewas confined there that night; but the news had spread so rapidly thatwithin an hour after his arrival a hundred persons had collected, and theexcitement became so intense "that it was with difficulty he could beconveyed alive to Jerusalem." The enthusiasm spread instantly throughVirginia; M. Trezvant, the Jerusalem postmaster, sent notices of it farand near; and Gov. Floyd himself wrote a letter to the Richmond_Enquirer_ to give official announcement of the momentous capture.

When Nat Turner was asked by Mr. T. R. Gray, the counsel assigned him,whether, although defeated, he still believed in his own Providentialmission, he answered, as simply as one who came thirty years after him,"Was not Christ crucified?" In the same spirit, when arraigned before thecourt, "he answered, 'Not guilty,' saying to his counsel that he did notfeel so." But apparently no argument was made in his favor by hiscounsel, nor were any witnesses called,--he being convicted on thetestimony of Levi Waller, and upon his own confession, which was put inby Mr. Gray, and acknowledged by the prisoner before the six justicescomposing the court, as being "full, free, and voluntary." He wastherefore placed in the paradoxical position of conviction by his ownconfession, under a plea of "Not guilty." The arrest took place on the30th of October, 1831, the confession on the 1st of November, the trialand conviction on the 5th, and the execution on the following Friday, the11th of November, precisely at noon. He met his death with perfectcomposure, declined addressing the multitude assembled, and told thesheriff in a firm voice that he was ready. Another account says that he"betrayed no emotion, and even hurried the executioner in the performanceof his duty." "Not a limb nor a muscle was observed to move. His body,after his death, was given over to the surgeons for dissection."

The confession of the captive was published under authority of Mr. Gray,in a pamphlet, at Baltimore. Fifty thousand copies of it are said to havebeen printed; and it was "embellished with an accurate likeness of thebrigand, taken by Mr. John Crawley, portrait-painter, and lithographed byEndicott & Swett, at Baltimore." The newly established _Liberator_ saidof it, at the time, that it would "only serve to rouse up other leaders,and hasten other insurrections," and advised grand juries to indict Mr.Gray. I have never seen a copy of the original pamphlet; it is not easilyto be found in any of our public libraries; and I have heard of but oneas still existing, although the Confession itself has been repeatedlyreprinted. Another small pamphlet, containing the main features of theoutbreak, was published at New York during the same year, and this is inmy possession. But the greater part of the facts which I have given weregleaned from the contemporary newspapers.

Who now shall go back thirty years, and read the heart of thisextraordinary man, who, by the admission of his captors, "never was knownto swear an oath, or drink a drop of spirits"; who, on the sameauthority, "for natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension wassurpassed by few men," "with a mind capable of attaining any thing"; whoknew no book but his Bible, and that by heart; who devoted himself souland body to the cause of his race, without a trace of personal hope orfear; who laid his plans so shrewdly that they came at last with lesswarning than any earthquake on the doomed community around; and who, whenthat time arrived, took the life of man, woman, and child, without athrob of compunction, a word of exultation, or an act of superfluousoutrage? Mrs. Stowe's "Dred" seems dim and melodramatic beside the actualNat Turner, and De Quincey's "Avenger" is his only parallel inimaginative literature. Mr. Gray, his counsel, rises into a sort ofbewildered enthusiasm with the prisoner before him. "I shall not attemptto describe the effect of his narrative, as told and commented on byhimself, in the condemned-hole of the prison. The calm, deliberatecomposure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, theexpression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, stillbearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him, clothedwith rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled handsto heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man,--I lookedon him, and the blood curdled in my veins."

But, the more remarkable the personal character of Nat Turner, thegreater the amazement felt that he should not have appreciated theextreme felicity of his position as a slave. In all insurrections, thestanding wonder seems to be that the slaves most trusted and best usedshould be most deeply involved. So in this case, as usual, men resortedto the most astonishing theories of the origin of the affair. Oneattributed it to Free-Masonry, and another to free whiskey,--libertyappearing dangerous, even in these forms. The poor whites charged it uponthe free colored people, and urged their expulsion; forgetting that inNorth Carolina the plot was betrayed by one of this class, and that inVirginia there were but two engaged, both of whom had slave wives. Theslaveholding clergymen traced it to want of knowledge of the Bible,forgetting that Nat Turner knew scarcely any thing else. On the otherhand, "a distinguished citizen of Virginia" combined in one sweepingdenunciation "Northern incendiaries, tracts, Sunday schools, religion,reading, and writing."

But whether the theories of its origin were wise or foolish, theinsurrection made its mark; and the famous band of Virginiaemancipationists, who all that winter made the House of Delegates ringwith unavailing eloquence,--till the rise of slave-exportation to newcotton regions stopped their voices,--were but the unconsciousmouthpieces of Nat Turner. In January, 1832, in reply to a member who hadcalled the outbreak a "petty affair," the eloquent James McDowell thusdescribed the impression it left behind:--

"Now, sir, I ask you, I ask gentlemen in conscience to say, was that a 'petty affair' which startled the feelings of your whole population; which threw a portion of it into alarm, a portion of it into panic; which wrung out from an affrighted people the thrilling cry, day after day, conveyed to your executive, '_We are in peril of our lives; send us an army for defence_'? Was that a 'petty affair' which drove families from their homes,--which assembled women and children in crowds, without shelter, at places of common refuge, in every condition of weakness and infirmity, under every suffering which want and terror could inflict, yet willing to endure all, willing to meet death from famine, death from climate, death from hardships, preferring any thing rather than the horrors of meeting it from a domestic assassin? Was that a 'petty affair' which erected a peaceful and confiding portion of the State into a military camp; which outlawed from pity the unfortunate beings whose brothers had offended; which barred every door, penetrated every bosom with fear or suspicion; which so banished every sense of security from every man's dwelling, that, let but a hoof or horn break upon the silence of the night, and an aching throb would be driven to the heart, the husband would look to his weapon, and the mother would shudder and weep upon her cradle? Was it the fear of Nat Turner, and his deluded, drunken handful of followers, which produced such effects? Was it this that induced distant counties, where the very name of Southampton was strange, to arm and equip for a struggle? No, sir: it was the suspicion eternally attached to the slave himself,--the suspicion that a Nat Turner might be in every family; that the same bloody deed might be acted over at any time and in any place; that the materials for it were spread through the land, and were always ready for a like explosion. Nothing but the force of this withering apprehension,--nothing but the paralyzing and deadening weight with which it falls upon and prostrates the heart of every man who has helpless dependants to protect,--nothing but this could have thrown a brave people into consternation, or could have made any portion of this powerful Commonwealth, for a single instant, to have quailed and trembled."

While these things were going on, the enthusiasm for the PolishRevolution was rising to its height. The nation was ringing with a pealof joy, on hearing that at Frankfort the Poles had killed fourteenthousand Russians. The _Southern Religious Telegraph_ was publishing animpassioned address to Kosciuszko; standards were being consecrated forPoland in the larger cities; heroes like Skrzynecki, Czartoryski,Rozyski, Raminski, were choking the trump of Fame with their complicatedpatronymics. These are all forgotten now; and this poor negro, who didnot even possess a name, beyond one abrupt monosyllable,--for even thename of Turner was the master's property,--still lives, a memory ofterror, and a symbol of wild retribution.

APPENDIX OF AUTHORITIES

THE MAROONS OF JAMAICA

1. Dallas, R. C. "The History of the Maroons, from their origin to theestablishment of their chief tribe at Sierra Leone: including theexpedition to Cuba, for the purpose of procuring Spanish chasseurs; andthe state of the Island of Jamaica for the last ten years, with asuccinct history of the island previous to that period." In two volumes.London, 1803. [8vo.]

2. Edwards, Bryan. "The History, Civil and Commercial, of the BritishColonies in the West Indies. To which is added a general description ofthe Bahama Islands, by Daniel M'Kinnen, Esq." In four volumes.Philadelphia, 1806. [8vo.]

3. Edwards, Bryan. "Proceedings of the Governor and Associates of Jamaicain regard to the Maroon Negroes, with an account of the Maroons." London,1796. 8vo.

4. Edwards, Bryan. "Historical Survey of St. Domingo, with an account ofthe Maroon Negroes, a history of the war in the West Indies, 1793-94"[etc.]. London, 1801. 4to.

[There appeared in _Once a Week_ (1865) a paper entitled "The Maroons ofJamaica," and reprinted in _Every Saturday_ (i. 50, Jan. 31, 1866), inwhich Gov. Eyre is quoted as having said, in the London _Times_, "To thefidelity and loyalty of the Maroons it is due that the negroes did notcommit greater devastation" in the recent insurrection; thus curiouslyrepeating the encomium given by Lord Balcarres seventy years before.]

* * * * *

THE MAROONS OF SURINAM

1. "Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition against the revolted negroes ofSurinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America, from the year1772 to 1777 ... by Capt. J. G. Stedman." London. Printed for J. Johnson,St. Paul's Churchyard, and J. Edwards, Pall Mall. 1790. [2 vols. 4to.]

2. "Transatlantic Sketches, comprising visits to the most interestingscenes in North and South America and the West Indies. With notes onnegro slavery and Canadian emigration. By Capt. J. E. Alexander, 42 RoyalHighlanders." London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington St., 1833. [2 vols.8vo.]

Also Annual Register, etc.

[The best account of the present condition of the Maroons, or, as theyare now called, bush-negroes, of Surinam, is to be found in a graphicnarrative of a visit to Dutch Guiana, by W. G. Palgrave, in the_Fortnightly Review_, xxiv. 801; xxv. 194, 536. These papers arereprinted in _Littell's Living Age_, cxxviii. 154, cxxix. 409. Heestimates the present numbers of these people as approaching thirtythousand. The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" gives the names of severalpublications relating to their peculiar dialect, popularly known asNegro-English, but including many Dutch words.]

* * * * *

GABRIEL'S DEFEAT

The materials for the history of Gabriel's revolt are still veryfragmentary, and must be sought in the contemporary newspapers. Nocontinuous file of Southern newspapers for the year 1800 was to be found,when this narrative was written, in any Boston or New-York library,though the Harvard-College Library contained a few numbers of theBaltimore _Telegraphe_ and the Norfolk _Epitome of the Times_. My chiefreliance has therefore been the Southern correspondence of the Northernnewspapers, with the copious extracts there given from Virginianjournals. I am chiefly indebted to the Philadelphia _United-StatesGazette_, the Boston _Independent Chronicle_, the Salem _Gazette_ and_Register_, the New-York _Daily Advertiser_, and the Connecticut_Courant_. The best continuous narratives that I have found are in the_Courant_ of Sept. 29, 1800, and the Salem _Gazette_ of Oct. 7, 1800; buteven these are very incomplete. Several important documents I have beenunable to discover,--the official proclamation of the governor, thedescription of Gabriel's person, and the original confession of theslaves as given to Mr. Sheppard. The discovery of these would no doubthave enlarged, and very probably corrected, my narrative.

* * * * *

DENMARK VESEY

1. "Negro Plot. An Account of the late intended insurrection among aportion of the blacks of the city of Charleston, S.C. Published by theAuthority of the Corporation of Charleston." Second edition. Boston:printed and published by Joseph W. Ingraham. 1822. 8vo, pp. 50.

[A third edition was printed at Boston during the same year, a copy ofwhich is in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Thefirst and fourth editions, which were printed at Charleston, S.C., I havenever seen.]

2. "An Official Report of the trials of sundry negroes, charged with anattempt to raise an insurrection in the State of South Carolina: precededby an introduction and narrative; and in an appendix, a report of thetrials of four white persons, on indictments for attempting to excite theslaves to insurrection. Prepared and published at the request of thecourt. By Lionel H. Kennedy and Thomas Parker, members of the Charlestonbar, and the presiding magistrates of the court." Charleston: printed byJames R. Schenck, 23 Broad St. 1822. 8vo, pp. 188x4.

4. "A Refutation of the Calumnies circulated against the Southern andWestern States, respecting the institution and existence of slavery amongthem. To which is added a minute and particular account of the actualstate and condition of their Negro Population, together with HistoricalNotices of all the Insurrections that have taken place since thesettlement of the country.--Facts are stubborn things.--_Shakspeare_. Bya South Carolinian." [Edwin C. Holland.] Charleston: printed by A. E.Miller, No. 4 Broad St. 1822. 8vo, pp. 86.

5. "Rev. Dr. Richard Furman's Exposition of the views of the Baptistsrelative to the colored population in the United States, in acommunication to the Governor of South Carolina." Second edition.Charleston: printed by A. E. Miller, No. 4 Broad St. 1833. 8vo, pp. 16.

[The first edition appeared in 1823. It relates to a petition offered bya Baptist Convention for a day of thanksgiving and humiliation, inreference to the insurrection, and to a violent hurricane which had justoccurred.]

6. "Practical Considerations, founded on the Scriptures, relative to theSlave Population of South Carolina. Respectfully dedicated to the SouthCarolina Association. By a South Carolinian." Charleston: printed andsold by A. E. Miller, No. 4 Broad St. 1823. 8vo, pp. 38.

7. [The letter of Gov. Bennett, dated Aug. 10, 1822, was evidentlyprinted originally as a pamphlet or circular, though I have not been ableto find it in that form. It may be found reprinted in the _ColumbianCentinel_ (Aug. 31, 1822), _Connecticut Courant_ (Sept. 3), and Worcester_Spy_ (Sept. 18). It is also printed in Lundy's _Genius of UniversalEmancipation_ for September, 1822 (ii. 42), and reviewed in subsequentnumbers (pp. 81, 131, 142).]

8. "The Liberty Bell, by Friends of Freedom. Boston: Anti-Slavery Bazaar.1841. 12mo." [This contains an article on p. 158, entitled "ServileInsurrections," by Edmund Jackson, including brief personal reminiscencesof the Charleston insurrection, during which he resided in that city.]

[Of the above-named pamphlets, all now rare, Nos. 1 and 2 are in my ownpossession. Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, are in the Wendell Phillips collection ofpamphlets in the Boston Public Library.]

* * * * *

NAT TURNER'S INSURRECTION

1. "The Confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late Insurrection inSouthampton, Va., as fully and voluntarily made to Thomas R. Gray, in theprison where he was confined, and acknowledged by him to be such whenread before the Court of Southampton, with the certificate under seal ofthe court convened at Jerusalem, Nov. 5, 1831, for this trial. Also anauthentic account of the whole insurrection, with lists of the whites whowere murdered, and of the negroes brought before the Court ofSouthampton, and there sentenced, etc." New York: printed and publishedby C. Brown, 211 Water Street, 1831.

[This pamphlet was reprinted in the _Anglo-African Magazine_ (New York),December, 1859. Whether it is identical with the work said by thenewspapers of the period to have been published at Baltimore, I have beenunable to ascertain. But if, as was alleged, forty thousand copies of theBaltimore pamphlet were issued, it seems impossible that they should havebecome so scarce. The first reprint of the Confession, so far as I know,was a partial one in Abdy's "Journal in the United States." London. 1835.3 vols. 8vo.]

2. "Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene which waswitnessed in Southhampton County (Va.), on Monday, the 22d of Augustlast, when Fifty-five of its inhabitants (mostly women and children) wereinhumanly massacred by the blacks! Communicated by those who wereeye-witnesses of the bloody scene, and confirmed by the confessions ofseveral of the Blacks, while under Sentence of Death." [By Samuel Warner,New York.] Printed for Warner & West. 1831. 12mo, pp. 36 [or more, copyincomplete. With a frontispiece]. Among the Wendell Phillips tracts inthe Boston Public Library.

3. "Slave Insurrection in 1831, in Southampton County, Va., headed by NatTurner. Also a conspiracy of slaves in Charleston, S.C., in 1822." NewYork: compiled and published by Henry Bibb, 9 Spruce St. 1849. 12mo, pp.12.

[The contemporary newspaper narratives may be found largely quoted in thefirst volume of the _Liberator_ (1831), and in Lundy's _Genius ofUniversal Emancipation_ (September, 1831). The files of the Richmond_Enquirer_ have also much information on the subject.]